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With the arrival of new hires, our workplace has become more lively. It\u2019s a source of immense joy to see the younger generation joining our industry. On the other hand, quite a few of them end up leaving early on.<\/p>\n
Rather than simply dismissing them as \u201clacking grit,\u201d I believe it\u2019s important to give voice to their perspectives. With that in mind, I spoke anonymously with a new hire who left the construction industry early on.<\/p>\n
A<\/b>\u3000To be honest, the real reason I quit so early was that I had lost hope for my future. I left the company just one month after joining. It was a civil engineering management firm, and in my department, I mainly handled safety management paperwork and site visits.<\/p>\n
I suppose you could say I lack grit, but I simply couldn\u2019t imagine myself working as a site supervisor in the construction industry in the future.<\/p>\n
Day after day, I was yelled at by the craftsmen. The site manager said it was just part of the learning curve, but there was almost no training. Every day, I didn\u2019t understand the meaning of the words or what I was supposed to be doing, and time just slipped away. The main reason was that I realized early on that I simply couldn\u2019t handle taking on a construction site and managing so many people.<\/p>\n
B<\/b>I think that in this industry, everyone\u2014whether they stay or leave\u2014goes through a period of despair at least once. If the relationship between the site manager and the subcontractors is good, I don\u2019t think it takes too much of a toll on your mental health, but on sites where that relationship isn\u2019t working out, it\u2019s really tough.<\/p>\n
Naturally, the pressure on the craftsmen gets tougher. It\u2019s what you might call \u201cgetting caught in the crossfire.\u201d This is really tough\u2014I end up caught in the middle. Since the branch manager and the craftsmen find it hard to speak frankly with each other, I step in to facilitate the exchange of opinions.<\/p>\n
For example, even in situations where the director could simply explain the design on-site, at worksites with a tense atmosphere, communication would go through me. It wasn\u2019t uncommon for me to get yelled at when I relayed the director\u2019s instructions exactly as they were.<\/p>\n
I found myself thrown right into such a toxic work environment from the very beginning, and I felt utterly hopeless, wondering if I would have to endure this kind of environment for the rest of my career.<\/p>\n
A<\/b>\u3000In my case, the gap between what I initially imagined my job would entail and the reality was a major factor. Once I started working on-site, I was determined to memorize the blueprints as best I could and learn the administrative tasks as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
In reality, though, I spent every day working side by side with the craftsmen on the job site. Far from doing management work, I ended up just running errands to fetch the tools they asked for. I was hardly ever allowed to do any management work at all. When I talked to my senior colleagues at the company, they told me, \u201cThat\u2019s just how it is during your first year,\u201d but I just couldn\u2019t accept that in my case.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m employed by the company to handle administrative tasks, yet I\u2019m stuck doing menial work on the front lines\u2014and if I even mention it, I\u2019m told I lack grit. I truly believe this industry culture needs to change. With the industry lamenting labor shortages due to the declining birthrate and aging population, it\u2019s simply absurd to refuse to change these bad practices, no matter how you look at it.<\/p>\n
A new site supervisor\u2019s job is, after all, to manage the site\u2014not to do the actual work. Isn\u2019t it a problem that such a basic fact is being ignored simply because they\u2019re new?<\/p>\n
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